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SOCI 3410

Early Social Thought

0.5 credits · Undergraduate

Fall 2026 · Social Thought

Topics

  • Classical sociological theory and its intellectual precursors
  • Hobbes, Rousseau, Smith and Martineau
  • Marx on ideology, labour, commodities and capital
  • Weber on social science, religion, power, domination and bureaucracy
  • Durkheim on division of labour, sociological method, suicide and religion
  • Close reading and critical comparison of original theoretical arguments

Readings

  • Required: Calhoun, Craig, Joseph Gerteis, James Moody, Steven Pfaff, and Indermohan Virk, editors. Classical Sociological Theory. 4th edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 2022.
  • Assigned primary-source excerpts in course schedule: Thomas Hobbes, Of the Natural Condition and the Commonwealth; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract; Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations; Harriet Martineau, Society in America.
  • Assigned primary-source excerpts in course schedule: Karl Marx: The German Ideology; Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844; Manifesto of the Communist Party; Wage Labour and Capital; Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof; The General Formula for Capital.
  • Assigned primary-source excerpts in course schedule: Max Weber: Objectivity in Social Science; Basic Sociological Terms; The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism; The Distribution of Power within the Political Community; The Types of Legitimate Domination; Bureaucracy.
  • Assigned primary-source excerpts in course schedule: Emile Durkheim: The Division of Labor in Society; Rules of Sociological Method; Suicide; The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.
Sources